Dead wood black locust 60"

[richpierce]

I found a dead wood, well seasoned piece of black locust 60" long and 6" in diameter at a powerline cut.  It split well, has a couple of side to side snakes in both staves (could have got 3 but not 4 staves from this one, but have not figured out how to split a log into thirds yet).  I managed to avoid the few worm holes while laying out the rough staves.

The growth rings are quite narrow, leading me to believe this was a limb.  After removing punky, half-rotten sapwood, the heartwood is sound and the staves ring like a bell when thumped on concrete.  I think the wood is seasoned enough to be made into a bow right away.  By the time I get it worked, it will be fully seasoned.

At 60" I am thinking it will be necessary to build a bend-through-the-handle bow for a 28" draw.  Question is, with this style, the handle is supposed to be the widest part of the bow, am I right?  That would limit the width of the limbs somewhat for comfort- maybe 1 and 1/4 to 1 and 1/2" wide.

Can I put a little "waist" in the handle, widen the limbs at the fades and still have it bend a little in the handle (but controlled) by increasing the thickness there judiciously?  Does anyone have a bow like this they can show me?

[Justin Snyder]

At 60" you should have no problem getting a 28" draw with a rigid handle if you do a Ryano style recurve.  But if the wood is at all questionable, I would go bendy handle.  The handle should be the same width as the limbs. Justin

[RidgeRunner]

I no longer have the bow to show you (gave it away years ago)
But, I built a bend through the handle bow with a slight " waist".
It worked well.  It was "sort of a flat bow" not your regular bend through the handle D-bow.
And to top it all off it was made from a dead black locust.

Watch the back it can still check.

David

[Glenn R.]

Same as ridgerunner, Ive built a bend in handle bow (osage) with flat limbs much wider than grip but tillered to D style--bending through---bow is 60#/62"ntn and has taken no string follow.  Good luck--

[Ryano]

I gota say Justin, I would recomend making any short ridged handed recurves like mine out of black locust. The wood won't handle the stress of that kind of design and will fret up the belly for sure. I would recomend short static recurved tips and a bend threw the handle design. And yes you can get away with narrowing the handle a bit as long as you leave it a little thicker.

[richpierce]

Ryan,
I searched for your style recurve and saw a few but fill me in please on the main features.  I saw a couple with a recurve of large radius and considerable reflex- looked like the recurve tips were at least 4" in back of the handle.  Handles looked narrow like a no-bend handle bow.  Looks like the tips were working, not static.

What would you recommend for maximum limb width for locust 60" long?

thanks,
rp